I live in constant fear of the flu..

For some reason I live in constant fear that my children will get the flu, I am not too worried about having fevers but I am worried about having 2 vomiting children at night and with my luck it will be when my DH is out of town (as he often travels for work). The kids are now 25months and we have only had one vomiting episode, I put them to bed one night when they were around 14months old, and DD started to cry and threw up everywhere, so I cleaned her up, and put her back to bed, and checked on her 30min later and she threw up again. That happened a few times, then I go and check DS (thinking thank goodness only one child was sick), just to find out he has thrown up as well and was sleeping in it. And, of course that happened when DH was out of town, and I didn't sleep all night long, as I was so worried.

Anyway, I now live in fear that I will have 2 kids throwing up for a few days, as well as myself feeling sick (because chances are I will get whatever they get). Anyone else worry about this?

I realize that all-in-all I am pretty lucky that in 25months I have only had a vomiting experience with them for one night, but then I worry that this means I am due for a big one in the near future!! I have on the other hand dealt with tons of cold, coughs, fevers, runny noses, sore tummys, etc, etc.

 

For what it's worth, we just seem to have (relatively) non-vomiting kids too. Mine are almost 4.5 and I don't think we've had more than 3 tummy bugs per kid in their whole lives, and none of them were truly awful. I also have only thrown up once or twice since they were born (and I don't think either of those were contagious -- more like "something I ate"). So you may just be lucky.

I also dread those kinds of illnesses, particularly if I think it might coincide with DH being out of town. I dread having cranky children, and I dread getting no sleep. (When DH and I are both home and one of the kids is sick, I often take a sleeping pill because that's the only way I can sleep without stressing about what might happen.) But what I keep telling myself is that if I have to go into crisis mode, I can. You can do whatever needs to be done, and if you're in the thick of a crisis, you will just take it one step at a time, and it will be over eventually. And a few days of little or no sleep, while it is unpleasant, won't kill you and you will recover. Nothing could be as bad as the newborn stage! At least not for me.

 

I too have not dealt with too much vomiting, although mine are younger than yours. I worry all the time about nights. For some reason, if it happens during the day, it seems more manageable, but I worry that they'll get sick in the night and I won't hear them. Or I worry that I'll be up all night since they won't be able to sleep because they are sick.

The flu ran through our house last month, and luckily it mostly just caused fevers, runny noses, and coughing. No vomiting or diarrhea - I don't want to mess with either one of those!!

 

So good to know I'm not the only one who is fearful of my kiddos getting the stomach bug. If one of them even burps funny I start freaking out in my head that they may be about to get sick. I don't do well with puking at all... My DS and DD have only had a very mild case of it once. Hope I'm not jinxing myself by "saying" that out loud. I seem to be able to do that somehow...
As someone said I think if it does happen you can handle it better than you think you can. My DS was sick with a fever and cough last week and the cough made him throw up once, and I handled it just fine. Of course that was very minor compared to full blown stomach flu.

 

Did they get their flu shots? I made sure mine got both the sesonal and H1N1.

Last April they did get rotovirus and that was HORRIBLE. Watery diarrhea for days so bad it was leaking on the floor. :bad: You have to avoid dairy and I thought they were doing better and gave them milk but I was wrong and they vomited for 2 hours from 10 pm - midnight. I ran out of sheets for their beds.

It's very contagious and since I was cleaning up the mess I got it. :cry:

The next day I went to Target and bought extra sheets and mattress covers and layered them so when they got sick, all I had to do was peel off the soiled sheets and covers and not have to worry about making the bed again. To this day, I still have sheets layered on their bed just in case.

 

I hate the stomach flu (which, BTW, is NOT what the seasonal/H1N1 vaccine is for). I'm a nurse, so I can handle vomit...but I do not 'prefer' to . It's just so messy. Like someone else mentioned, it's constant laundry with sheets/blankets/pillowcases/pjs/etc. Ugh!

We've had the stomach flu twice each winter until this winter where only Aiden got it. He was 28 mos & I taught him to puke in a bucket! How wonderful that was! MUCH less laundry!

I'm different in that as much as I hate how MESSY the stomach flu is, I'd prefer that over most other illnesses. The flu only lasts 24-48 hours, whereas other illnesses last days & days. I can't handle the no-sleep thing for that long. Because I work 12 hour nights, there are times where I'm up 48 some hours at a time if I have sick kids (because then I don't have daycare). THAT sucks. And I think the other illnesses with the naggy cough, stuffy head, high fevers, etc just seem to make kids miserable for SO long. So, not that I'm 'asking for it', but I think I'd take the stomach flu over most anything else (except a mild cold, probably).

But, if you think the stomach flu is bad, be glad your kids never got Rotavirus! For us, it was 7 days straight of projectile vomiting & watery diarrhea that was NEVER contained with the diaper. I've never in my life had a worse week. Both my kids had it at the same time. Awful. Absolutely awful. Then there was RSV, where my one son was hospitalized. That was just downright scary, the absolute scariest 48 hours of my life. I'd DEFINITELY take the flu over both of those!

Let's just hope NO ONE gets sick with ANYTHING, huh ?!?!

 

That seems like a realy difficult way to live. Have you thought about talking to your doctor about this? It might be something to think about. I mean, sure, no one WANTS to get sick or to have their kids get sick BUT it IS a normal part of life and to say that you live in CONSTANT FEAR of it- is probably not normal.

I wonder if maybe you could be suffering from anxiety? It might be worth speaking to your doctor about this just to make your life more enjoyable esp because your kids WILL be getting sick and it's MUCH more fun to live w/o worrying about that constantly

Hugs. Anxiety is awful.

 

((Hugs)) to you! As a mother of "pukers," it is not a good time. Mine gag and vomit any time they have post-nasal drip. I have purchased a bunch of Miracle Sheets -- they snap onto the crib and have a waterproof back. Though, if yours are already in beds, that's probably not much help. But, when they vomit all over themselves in bed, it makes clean-up much easier. When we all had the stomach flu, I made a pile of blankets on the kitchen floor, and we slept there. Much easier than trying to get all that vomit out of the rug. Oh yeah. . .mine have also both been hospitalized for norovirus (at the same time) and RSV (separately). It's a nightmare, but one that seems unavoidable if you're going to spend time in public. I try to wipe everything down and keep a constant supply of purell. I don't think it's done me much (any) good. So, take a deep breath, hope for the best and prepare for the worst. That's the only way to make it through. Oh yeah. . .and a constant supply of caffeine and sugar for those sleepless nights!!

 

No, I don't live in constant fear of it and I sure don't keep my kids from doing stuff b/c I'm afraid they'll get it. That being said, puking kids is NO FUN! My older DD is 7 and I think she's gotten a stomach bug twice. She was 3 before she got sick. The twins got sick at 5 months with Rotavirus. Oh my! Can I just say that is the absolute nastiest bug ever! The smell....ugh. I actually had one hospitalized for 5 days b/c of it (dehydration). The next time they got sick was of course the one time DH has been out of town. lol That def. was hard. I think they were about 15 months at the time. And we all got a nasty stomach bug last year and I got hit the hardest. The kids stopped getting sick within 12 hours or so, but it was much longer for me and when you're sick it's very hard to care for others that are getting sick as well. So, no...I don't live in constant fear of it, but I do hate it when it happens.